In 1663, the landlord of
the pub was rewarded by Charles II for giving support to his
executed father and his royalist supporters - The
Cavaliers. During the Civil War, the pub had been used as a
mustering place by King Charles I, where his personal standard had
been raised to draw royalist supporters in
fightingfor his cause
against the Parliamentarians –The Roundheads. Charles
IIhonoured the landlord
by agreeing to change the name of the pub from The Ship to
“The Royal Standard of England ”, the only pub in the
country with the honour of the full title.
This small cache is located at Roundhead Wood on
the edge of Forty Green, a small hamlet in the Parish of Penn, just
a couple of miles from Beaconsfield.
Forty Green is surrounded by ancient beech
woodlands, grazing pasture and quiet country lanes, and its name
comes from Anglo-Saxon meaning 'jutting forth island of land',
which perfectly describes the island of land contained by Ridings
Lane.
Until the railway came to Beaconsfield in 1906,
Forty Green was just a sleepy backwater. In 1851, the village had
85 people (21 households), with most employed in agriculture or
lace-making. The railways enabled fruit grown locally to be sold in
London's markets, and at one time there were many cherry trees in
the area.